Rudolf Weigl was the polish biologist, physician and inventor. He was the one who developed vaccine against the epidemic typhus. He was the founder of Weigl Institute in Lviv and also nominated for Nobel prize twice.
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| Rudolf Weigl doing research in the lab (Photo:-Google) |
On thursday, Google celebrates the 138th birth anniversary of Rudolf Weigl with doodle. He was the polish biologist, physician and inventor. He was the one who developed vaccine against the epidemic typhus. During the World War 2, he also saved the life of many jewish men and women.
In the Google doodle, he holds the test tube in his gloved hands, doing experiment in the lab. Rudolf Weigl was the founder of Weigl Institute in Lviv.
He was born on 2 September, 1883 in Prerau, Austria-Hungary to Austrian-German parents. When Weigl was a child, his father died in a bicycle accident and his mother married to polish secondary school teacher. Although Weigl was a native German speaker, he adopted polish language and culture after the shifting of his family in Poland.
His family moved to Lviv where Weigl graduated in 1907 from the biology department at the Lwów University. He also received doctorate degree in zoology, comparative anatomy and histology.
After the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914, he was drafted into the medical service of the Austro-Hungarian army and began research on typhus. On the invasion of Poland by Germany in 1939, Weigl continued his research at the institution in Lemberg.
During the World War 2, when German Nazi occupied the Poland, Weigl’s research work attracted the attention of Nazis. They ordered Weigl to open the typhus vaccine production plant at his institute. He hired his friends and colleagues for this work. He gave employment to many persons and protected them from Nazis. They helped Weigl in typhus research work and experiments with lice. In this way, he protected almost 5,000 lives of jewish men and women.
He was nominated for Nobel prize twice. First time he nominated in 1942 for the research of typhus vaccine but Germans blocked his nomination as he was not signed Reichslist. In 1946, he again nominated for the Nobel prize but this time Polish government withdrew his application. The government falsely accussed him of collaborating with the Germans. Despite nominating twice, he never received the prize for his vaccine research and social work.
Rudolf Weigl died on 11 August, 1957 at the age of 73. In 2003, he was honoured by Israel as Righteous among the Nations of the World.